Some coworkers show up in an N95 mask, sometimes, because they are working sick. They know they are sick, know they are contageous, but they still are going to come to work.

Or maybe, just show up sick, no mask, sit there and cough for hours. One fellow, a boss, with covid. Knew it, still came to work, sat there and coughed.

I couldn't tell him off.

I need this job. My family needs my paycheck.

I can't retire. I will have to work until I die.

I try to delay that as long as I can.

#covid

Nervous laugh from a senior dev coworker I don't usually see face-to-face. He is staring at me 'cause I am wearing an N95 mask as I walk into a room at the same time as him. He asks,

"Heh heh, I see!
Are you...
Is there something you know?...
That I should worry about?"

I am the last one to still be wearing a mask. There is one other masking coworker in a nearby group.

So many words. No words.

#covid #n95

She asleep on arm of chair!

Sister slid off pillow, but she don't care!

But alert in shadow, he crouch and stare!

#catsOfMastodon #caturday

reading...

https://sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Class/OS-ISRM_SlideRuleSeminar.pdf

Although I totally didn't need one, I bought a slide rule.

I had one as a kid, but didn't really figure out how it worked. Maybe a half century later, I can give it another try?

In Morro Bay, on vacation, took a morning walk while family slept in.

Peeked in Dolly's Donuts.

"No bathroom for customers? But you sell coffee! That's just wrong."

Wandering back, stopped in the thrift store, "The Good Flea", found 1980s HP-12C calculator for $1.

Needs batteries. Whatever is modern equiv of LR44?

"Oh, you can get those at Radio Shack! Why, yes, we still have one, up on Quintana."

So that's where I went next.

#thifting

I find clover hopeful.

#garden

"If the cat lays on her side, we call that a floop. If a squirrel makes itself flat on the fence rail, that's a sploot. But what should we call it when our tabby goes on his back to get belly rubs?"

"A floof-boat?"

#caturday on wednesday

Then I was dreaming that it was a different company I was at.

I was head down in some project, when the CEO, a serious woman in her 40's, pulled me aside and urgently told me,

"We just figured out that our head developer has been secretly working for our competitor, Bearly Working. There are suspicious commits in the code. We think he put in backdoors in our shipped versions."

Then suddenly time jumped forward.

#nightmare

Anxiety dream about working in tech:

There was a startup that promised to move large white insulated shipping containers of running cryogenic quantum computers.

But CEO was full nuts, wanted a big press spectacle.

"Move the servers by giant hexacopter! Suspended by a single umbilicus! While the servers are still running! With people working inside the container! Up the cliff face! While everyone is trashed on beer! And wearing bear suits! 'Cause it's Bearsuit Friday. Ha ha ha!"

#nightmare

I don't post pictures of people or private locations.

Alameda party for a high school grad, son of wife's friend. Nice people, old craftsman house all loaded with family and friends, food and conversation.

Knew this guy growing up, fellow adrift miserable teenager, decades ago. Visited him at his house.

His mom had a hustle, raising, selling dogs.

House was full of dachsunds in cages, running about underfoot, barking at everything! Stinky dogs, barky dogs, so many dogs!

Anything would set them off, then they'd all bark at each other!

-

When buncha guys do that online, all barking at each other at once, does that activity have a name?

If not, I suggest maybe "weinerdogging".

Got a couple more MeshCore nodes, cheap $11 Xio ESP32S3/SX1262 nodes. No battery, no enclosure, cheap circuit board antenna. Idea being to let desktop computer talk radio waves to nearby repeater. And reach our regional MeshCore.

Also got a 4 pack of MuziWorks 915MHz antennas with U.FL - SMA pigtails. Hoping for better transmit and receive.

At least with SMA connectors experimenting should be easier.

#MeshCore

Sometimes, I think it helps to think of people's emotional skillset like a toolbox.

What's in the toolbox?

Could be...well...not that much.

I think of that, when I get a disappointing response from someone, or think of when I have acted in a disappointing way.

#InterpersonalSkills #disappointment

Stepped out the front door to run back to store.

Night time. Dark. Neighbors still taking walks.

At the edge of the yard, by the sidewalk, our bookbox was lit up by the two solar yard lights shining down on the books inside.

At the box, was a parent with two small children. Door open, checking out the books.

Happy that they were!

Hope the kids found something inside.

#bookbox #neighbors

Drove past Trader Joe's grocery on my way home, bought some sunflowers, a card, and some chocolate for my spouse, for Mother's Day tomorrow.

Yes, most flowers were gone. Stampede had passed through.

On a whim, I also went in the thrift store nearby and bought a small ceramic rabbit. Brought it home cleaned it, and snuck it into the dish cabinet.

Waited. Eventually, she went to get a plate, stared, said amused, "Ha! What's going on here?"

#silliness

Anyone who would do such things, would belong to a class we could call...

"Liars".

Who are the liars?

Are they sourced from particular groups or professions?

What are their alliances?

Where do they discuss their work?

How are they trained?

#InformationWarfare

Driving, under gray sky, gray gray gray, thinking...

What if previous surges of public stupidity were #InformationWarfare probing attacks?

Inputs would be manipulations, disinformation, messaging.

Outputs would be changes in behavior, consequences, words repeated.

Injecting taggants into information streams enables tracking info flow. A misspelling. Particular image.

Instrumented information environment would give view of each individual. Web and adtech would be key to monitoring.

Oh no, because we were late feeding them on May Day, our cats have gone anarcho-communist!

They are now saying weird historical slogans!

#MayDay #CatsOfMastodon